Connector enclosure

ABSTRACT

To connect two apparatuses a connector assembly is used comprising two connector units and a plurality of conductors, and to protect said conductors a connector enclosure is provided consisting of an inner member of non elastic material, which member is constructed with two articulate inner tubes adapted to be coupled with the said two connector-units and with an outer tube, which is coupled telescopically and rotatably about a limited angle with the coupling extremities of the inner tubes opposite the articulate extremities of said inner tubes; and as an outer enclosure a bellow or sleeve of elastic material is used, said connector assembly permits a limited relative movement of the connector units, which is for an improved protection of the conductors against damage through imprudent use.

United States Patent Deurloo 1 June 13, 1972 [54] CONNECTOR ENCLOSURE 289,265 11/1883 Hurly ..l85/166 X [72] Inventor: ilohdannis M. Deurloo, Enkhuizen, Nether- FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS an s 906,955 9/1962 Great Britain ..285/165 [73] Assignee: Drake Kabel N.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands Pn'mary Examiner-Thomas F. Callaghan Filed: June Attorney-Waters, ROdlti, Schwartz & Nissen 211 App]. No.: 43,117 57 ABSTRACT To connect two apparatuses a connector assembly is used 8" Application Priority Dim comprising two connector units and a plurality of conductors,

AU 12 1969 Netherlands 6912273 and to protect said conductors a connector enclosure is provided consisting of an inner member of non elastic material, which member is constructed with two articulate inner tubes [52] [1.8. CI. ..285/45, 285/165, 22885526266, adapted to be coupled with the Said two connecmbunits and [5]] II" 27/00 with an outer tube, which is coupled telescopically and I [58] Fieid l 66 167 rotatably about a limited angle with the coupling extremities 5 M 6 of the inner tubes opposite the articulate extremities of said inner tubes; and as an outer enclosure a bellow or sleeve of elastic material is used, said connector assembly permits a [56] References Cited limited relative movement of the connector units, which is for UNITED STATES PATENTS an improved protection of the conductors against damage through imprudent use. 3,427,051 2/1969 White ct al ..285/45 X 1,614,667 1/1927 Gillick ..285/ 166 3 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures 3 1r 1 1n 21 l5 "7T5: co; 4

12 'I 1 ll l I I I I l I 1 2 *5 l i I CONNECTOR ENCLOSURE The invention relates to a connector enclosure for the conductors between two connector units, comprising a sleeve or bellows of an elastic material as outer enclosure.

In order to connect an electronical apparatus with another apparatus, this apparatus comprises a terminal-means, in which the difierent conductors of the apparatus to be connected, are fixed on the terminals thereof, whereas for the electrical connection of two apparatuses by means of a number of conductors use is made of a connector-assembly, which assembly can be connected with the two apparatus-terminal means.

For a short distance to be bridged this connector-assembly consists of two connector-units each mating to the respective apparatus-terminal means, which connector-units are mutually coupled by means of a sleeve or bellows of an elastic material, which serves as an enclosure for the conductors extending from one connector-unit to the other connector-unit. This bellows or sleeve must guarantee a determined degree of mutual movability of the two connector-units of the connector-assembly, however, a practical limit is set to this movability as a consequence of the short length of the conductors.

The disadvantage of the connector-assembly as used up till now consists therein, that through unjudicious use in practice the contact with the connector-units of some conductors in said assembly can be broken by twisting or displacing of the connector-units.

The invention has as a principal object to eliminate the practical disadvantage mentioned above and to obtain such a purpose the invention can be characterized in that the enclosure further comprises an inner member of non-elastic material, which member is constructed with two articulate innertubes to be coupled with said two connector-units and with an outer tube, which is coupled telescopically and rotatably about a limited angle with the coupling extremities of the inner tubes opposite the articulate extremities of said inner tubes.

Through the limited rotatability and slidability of the innermember it is impossible with the connector-enclosure according to the invention to turn or to displace the connector-units in practice with respect to each other about such an angle and in such a manner that the contact of some conductors is broken with the connector-units in the connector-assembly.

The invention will now further be elucidated according to the figures:

FIG. 1 represents a side-view of an connector-assembly, that shows in cross-section an embodiment of the connectorenclosure according to the invention.

FIG. 2 shows a cross-section according to line II-II of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows an end-view of the coupling extremity of the connector-enclosure according to FIG. 1.

FIG. 4a-d show several positions of the two connector units being possible with the connector assembly according to the invention.

The connector-assembly according to the invention in FIG. 1 comprises two connector-units 1, 2 which are connected with the respective terminal-means of two electronical apparatus to be connected with each other, whereas these connector-units are coupled by means of a connector-enclosure generally indicated with 3, that serves as enclosure for the conductors running from the one member 1 to the other member 2.

This connector-enclosure 3 comprises a bellows or sleeve member 4 and a cylindrical inner-member, generally referenced by 5. This inner-member substantially comprises two inner tubes 6, 7 and a telescopically outer tube 8 coupled therewith. The inner tubes 6, 7 are provided with a ball-end 9 on one extremity, fitting in a ball-pocket 10 of a connectorunit. The inner tube 6 is enclosed by means of an outer ring 1 1 to be screwed on the hollow end 10. By means of this coupling a ball and socket joint is constructed which makes it possible to radially turn an inner tube to all sides with respect to the corresponding connector-unit, however which also permits to pivot this inner tube with respect to this connector-unit in a more or less unlimited way. In order to prevent the rotation of the inner tube with respect to the connector-unit, the tube is provided with two pins 12 spaced opposite each other about the periphery, which pins can be engaged in corresponding openings in the hollow end 10. In order to obtain a limited movement of the ball and socket joint perpendicularly to the place of drawing according to FIG. 1, these last mentioned openings can be constructed as slots 13.

When the inner tubes should now be mounted with the free coupling ends rigidly to each other the connector-assembly could be brought in the position according to FIG. 4b by means of the vertical movability of the ball and socket joints, and in the position according to FIG. M by means of the limited horizontal movability of the ball and socket joints on account of the pins 12. By means of the position according to FIG. 4b it is possible to connect the connector-assembly not yet connected, when the one connector-unit of the connectorassembly is already coupled to the corresponding terminalmeans of one electronic apparatus, with the other terminalmeans of the other electronic apparatus.

Through this mutually limited rotatability of the connectorunits, however, no correct connecting possibility of the connector-assembly is still guaranteed with respect to electronical apparatus. Therefore it is required, that the two inner tubes 6, 7 are coupled telescopically and rotatably about a limited angle with each other. For this purpose the coupling end of an inner tube is provided with two collars 14 and 15, which serves as borders of a cylindrical space 16. The collar 14, which is spaced nearest to the coupling end of the inner tube, comprises axial recesses 17 and projections 18 regularly spaced over the periphery, which is shown most clearly in FIG. 3. The tangential width of the projection 18 is smaller than that of the recess 17.

In the inner periphery of the outer tube 8 corresponding projections 17', respectively recesses 18' are arranged, and with the width of the recess 18' being again larger than the tangential width of the projections 17'. The dimensions of the projections and recesses are chosen such that the inner tubes can be inserted telescopically in the outer tube and have a limited rotatability with respect to each other.

In order to limit the mutual axial displacement of the tubes 6, 7 with respect to each other, one stop ring 19 comprising two half rings is arranged in the cylindrical space 16, which fit in the largest boring of an inner retaining ring 20 being formed stepwise on the inside, with which the stop ring can be mounted against the end-face of the outer tube 8 by screwing this tube retaining ring in a fixed position on the outer tube 8.

By means of the coupling telescopically arranged between the inner tubes 6, 7 it is possible to slide the two connectors l 2 of the connector-unit with respect to each other, as this is indicated by the two positions of the connector 2 shown in FIG.

Because the recesses and projections 17, 17 and respectively l8, l8 belonging to each other possess a certain clearance in tangential sense, it is possible to turn the inner tubes and consequently the connector-units 1, 2 with respect to each other and to arrange them in mutual different positions, as shown in FIG. 4c.

The bellows or sleeve 4 is mounted around the innermember 5 and can advantageously be provided with inwardly extending beads 21, which fit behind the outer rings 11, and which beads can be positioned by means of a metal clamp 22.

In this manner a connector-enclosure according to the invention is provided to permit a limited vertical displacement and turning of the connector-units as well as horizontal tuming and a rotation of these connector-units in a tangential sense with respect to the connector-enclosure. The movement limiting inner-member of this enclosure is realized with a minimum number of parts in a simple way, so that in an economical way a practical security against unjudicious use of a connector-assembly is achieved.

In the scope of the invention still many modifications of the construction are possible of which e.g. the replacement of the ball and socket joint with an articulate connection can be contemplated.

What is claimed is:

1. A connector-enclosure for a plurality of conductors between two connector units of a connector assembly comprising a sleeve of elastic material secured at the ends thereof to the connector units and an inner member of non-elastic material, which inner member comprises two inner tubes having each one end adapted to form with an output end of an associated connector unit a ball and socket joint, an outer tube coupled telescopically and rotatably about a limited angle with the other ends of said inner tubes, two tube-retaining rings to be screwed on the extremities of the outer tube, and two stop-rings which may be mounted between the inner face of said tube-retaining rings and said other ends of said inner tubes; said ball and socket joint being provided perpendicularly on the axial direction of said connector assembly with two pins in one component of said joint, which pins engage in axial extending elongated openings in the other component of said joint to prevent a twisting movement of said inner tubes with respect to the output ends of the associated connector units on the one hand and yet to allow for a limited pivotal movement of said ball and socket joint on the other hand, and with an outer ring having inner screw thread such that said ring may be screwed to enclose said one end of said inner tubes of the ball and socket joints; each of said other ends of said inner tubes being provided with a cylindrical recess bounded by two collars of which the collar nearest to the extremity of said other end of an inner tube is formed of recesses and projections angularly spaced along the periphery of said collar and with a relative different width, and said outer tube being provided internally with corresponding axial recesses and projections, but such that the angular width of the projections of an inner tube is smaller than that of the associated recesses in the inner face of the outer tube and vice versa; the inner diameter of said stop rings being smaller than the outer diameter of the collars on said other ends of said inner tubes and of such a magnitude that these rings fit in said first men tioned cylindrical recesses of said inner tubes.

2. A connector-enclosure for a plurality of conductors between two connector units of a connector assembly comprising a sleeve of elastic material secured at the ends thereof to the connector units and an inner member of non-elastic material, which inner member comprises two inner tubes having each one end adapted to form with an output end of an associated connector unit a ball and socket joint, an outer tube coupled telescopically and rotatably about a limited angle with the other ends of said inner tubes, two tube-retaining rings to be screwed on the extremities of the outer tube, and two stop-rings which may be mounted between the inner face of said tube-retaining rings and said other ends of said inner tubes; said ball and socket joint being provided perpendicw larly on the axial direction of said connector assembly with two pins in one component of said joint, which pins engage in axial extending elongated openings in the other component of said joint to prevent a twisting movement of said inner tubes with respect to the output ends of the associated connector units on the one hand and yet to allow for a limited pivotal movement of said ball and socket joint on the one hand, and with an outer ring having inner screw thread such that said ring may be screwed to enclose said one end of said inner tubes of the ball and socket joints; each of said other ends of said inner tubes being provided with a cylindrical recess bounded by two collars of which the collar nearest to the extremity of said other end of an inner tube is formed of recesses and projections angularly spaced along the periphery of said collar and with a relative diflerent width, and said outer tube being provided internally with corresponding axial recesses and projections, but such that the angular width of the projections of an inner tube is smaller than that of the associated recesses in the inner face of the outer tube and vice versa; the inner diameter of said stop rings being smaller than the outer diameter of the collars on said other ends of said inner tubes and of such a magnitude that these rings fit in said first mentioned cylindrical recesses of said inner tubes, and each of said stop-rings comprising two half rigid portions.

3. A connector-enclosure for a plurality of conductors between two connector units of a connector assembly comprising a sleeve of elastic material secured at the ends thereof to the connector units and an inner member of non-elastic material, which inner member comprises two inner tubes having each one end adapted to fonn with an output end of an associated connector unit a ball and socket joint, an outer tube coupled telescopically and rotatably about a limited angle with the other ends of said inner tubes, two tube-retaining rings to be screwed on the extremities of the'outer tube, and two stop-rings which may be mounted between the inner face of said tube-retaining rings and said other ends of said inner tubes; said ball and socket joint being provided perpendicularly on the axial direction of said connector assembly with two pins in one component of said joint, which pins engage in axial extending elongated openings in the other component of said joint to prevent a twisting movement of said inner tubes with respect to the output ends of the associated connector units on the one hand and yet to allow for a limited pivotal movement of said ball and socket joint on the other hand, and with an outer ring having an inner screw thread such that said ring may be screwed to enclose said one end of said inner tubes of the ball and socket joints; each of said other ends of said inner tubes being provided with a cylindrical recess bounded by two collars of which the collar nearest to the extremity of said other end of an inner tube is formed of recesses and projections angularly spaced along the periphery of said collar and with a relative different width, and said outer tube being provided internally with corresponding axial recesses and projections, but such that the angular width of the projections of an inner tube is smaller than that of the associated recesses in the inner face of the outer tube and vice versa; the inner diameter of said stop rings being smaller than the outer diameter of the collars on said other ends of said inner tubes and of such a magnitude that these rings fit in said first mentioned cylindrical recesses of said inner tubes, and each of said stop-rings existing of a split resilient ring. 

1. A connector-enclosure for a plurality of conductors between two connector units of a connector assembly comprising a sleeve of elastic material secured at the ends thereof to the connector units and an inner member of non-elastic material, which inner member comprises two inner tubes having each one end adapted to form with an output end of an associated connector unit a ball and socket joint, an outer tube coupled telescopically and rotatably about a limited angle with the other ends of said inner tubes, two tube-retaining rings to be screwed on the extremities of the outer tube, and two stop-rings which may be mounted between the inner face of said tube-retaining rings and said other ends of said inner tubes; said ball and socket joint being provided perpendicularly on the axial direction of said connector assembly with two pins in one component of said joint, which pins engage in axial extending elongated openings in the other component of said joint to prevent a twisting movement of said inner tubes with respect to the output ends of the associated connector units on the one hand and yet to allow for a limited pivotal movement of said ball and socket joint on the other hand, and with an outer ring having inner screw thread such that said ring may be screwed to enclose said one end of said inner tubes of the ball and socket joints; each of said other ends of said inner tubes being provided with a cylindrical recess bounded by two collars of which the collar nearest to the extremity of said other end of an inner tube is formed of recesses and projections angularly spaced along the periphery of said collar and with a relative different width, and said outer tube being provided internally with corresponding axial recesses and projections, but such that the angular width of the projections of an inner tube is smaller than that of the associated recesses in the inner face of the outer tube and vice versa; the inner diameter of said stop rings being smaller than the outer diameter of the collars on said other ends of said inner tubes and of such a magnitude that these rings fit in said first mentioned cylindrical recesses of said inner tubes.
 2. A connector-enclosure for a plurality of conductors betweeN two connector units of a connector assembly comprising a sleeve of elastic material secured at the ends thereof to the connector units and an inner member of non-elastic material, which inner member comprises two inner tubes having each one end adapted to form with an output end of an associated connector unit a ball and socket joint, an outer tube coupled telescopically and rotatably about a limited angle with the other ends of said inner tubes, two tube-retaining rings to be screwed on the extremities of the outer tube, and two stop-rings which may be mounted between the inner face of said tube-retaining rings and said other ends of said inner tubes; said ball and socket joint being provided perpendicularly on the axial direction of said connector assembly with two pins in one component of said joint, which pins engage in axial extending elongated openings in the other component of said joint to prevent a twisting movement of said inner tubes with respect to the output ends of the associated connector units on the one hand and yet to allow for a limited pivotal movement of said ball and socket joint on the one hand, and with an outer ring having inner screw thread such that said ring may be screwed to enclose said one end of said inner tubes of the ball and socket joints; each of said other ends of said inner tubes being provided with a cylindrical recess bounded by two collars of which the collar nearest to the extremity of said other end of an inner tube is formed of recesses and projections angularly spaced along the periphery of said collar and with a relative different width, and said outer tube being provided internally with corresponding axial recesses and projections, but such that the angular width of the projections of an inner tube is smaller than that of the associated recesses in the inner face of the outer tube and vice versa; the inner diameter of said stop rings being smaller than the outer diameter of the collars on said other ends of said inner tubes and of such a magnitude that these rings fit in said first mentioned cylindrical recesses of said inner tubes, and each of said stop-rings comprising two half rigid portions.
 3. A connector-enclosure for a plurality of conductors between two connector units of a connector assembly comprising a sleeve of elastic material secured at the ends thereof to the connector units and an inner member of non-elastic material, which inner member comprises two inner tubes having each one end adapted to form with an output end of an associated connector unit a ball and socket joint, an outer tube coupled telescopically and rotatably about a limited angle with the other ends of said inner tubes, two tube-retaining rings to be screwed on the extremities of the outer tube, and two stop-rings which may be mounted between the inner face of said tube-retaining rings and said other ends of said inner tubes; said ball and socket joint being provided perpendicularly on the axial direction of said connector assembly with two pins in one component of said joint, which pins engage in axial extending elongated openings in the other component of said joint to prevent a twisting movement of said inner tubes with respect to the output ends of the associated connector units on the one hand and yet to allow for a limited pivotal movement of said ball and socket joint on the other hand, and with an outer ring having an inner screw thread such that said ring may be screwed to enclose said one end of said inner tubes of the ball and socket joints; each of said other ends of said inner tubes being provided with a cylindrical recess bounded by two collars of which the collar nearest to the extremity of said other end of an inner tube is formed of recesses and projections angularly spaced along the periphery of said collar and with a relative different width, and said outer tube being provided internally with corresponding axial recesses and projections, but such that the angular width of the projections of an inner tube is smaller than that of the Associated recesses in the inner face of the outer tube and vice versa; the inner diameter of said stop rings being smaller than the outer diameter of the collars on said other ends of said inner tubes and of such a magnitude that these rings fit in said first mentioned cylindrical recesses of said inner tubes, and each of said stop-rings existing of a split resilient ring. 